What is the role of art and technology in repression and resistance, and how can community combat social breakdown?

From this Episode

On this episode of Studio B: Unscripted, award-winning illustrator and writer Molly Crabapple is in conversation with best-selling author and journalist Paul Mason.

Molly Crabapple has chronicled the stories of the marginalised while also shedding light on the darker corners of the United States empire. Crabapple's artwork was widely used during the Occupy Wall Street protests, and in 2013 she was one of the first artists to gain access to the Guantanamo Bay prison.

She has sketched and written on a range of stories from the consequences of Hurricane Maria and corruption in Puerto Rico, to the lives of refugees in Greece and throughout the Middle East. Her most recent publication in collaboration with Syrian journalist Marwan Hisham, Brothers of the Gun (2018), details Hisham's harrowing experience living in parts of Syria under ISIL control.

Paul Mason's career as a journalist covering the financial crisis, international protests from Turkey to Spain, the conflict in Gaza, and the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the US furnished his subsequent books and plays, including Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions (2012) and Postcapitalism (2017).

In his latest book, Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being (2019), Mason argues that the rise and fall of neoliberalism has galvanised the far right as well as global resistance movements. His book makes the case for ethical human control of technology to further global progress.

Mason and Crabapple explore how the events of 2011 transformed the trajectories of their lives and cemented their shared belief that carbon-based capitalism is contributing to social discord. They share the lessons they've learned from international movements, their perspectives on the role of art and online networks in both repression and resistance, and how to tackle fascism and prejudice, as well as the impacts of climate change.

The views expressed in this programme are the guests' own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

Studio B: Unscripted is a free-flow conversation between two guests and a small audience, with no mediation, no MC, no TV presenter - focusing on what brings us all together and how we can tackle and discuss some of the big issues of our time.